Wednesday, February 11, 2009

King of Hearts

Intelligent, generous, kind, dedicated, funny, charming and talented are all adjectives I use to describe my friend, Dr. Ron Lehocky. Unless you've been hiding in a cave recently, you've probably read about this Kentucky pediatrician's great passion for raising money to benefit the Louisville Cerebral Palsy KIDS Center. With one heart pin at a time, Ron has raised nearly $80,000 for this deserving organization over the past few years. That's almost 8000 hearts at 10 bucks a pop. He makes each and every one of them himself in his "spare" time and each and every heart is as wonderful and special as he is. The one shown above is a custom sticks and stone heart that he made just for me. It's truly one of my most favorite pieces and it hangs on the wall of my studio with many other hearts I've collected from him over the past few years. I've given a few away as gifts but I just can't bear to part with most of them so my collection (shown here) continues to grow.

You may have read Ron's excellent article "Skinner Blending My Passions" in the February 2009 issue of Polymer Cafe. It provides a wonderful insight into his passion and includes a great tutorial for making a heart of your own.

If you want to read more about Ron and his hearts, see Cynthia's past posts on Polymer Clay Daily here and here.

To purchase one of these wonderful heart pins (which is what I suggest), contact Ron and let him choose something special for you. It will be one of most rewarding $10 purchases you'll ever make.

8 comments:

Aweeeee...That's what I am in everytime I get a chance to spend time with Ron....The world should be full of more people like him!!...When we get together Ron always has a huge collection of his hearts and I am like a kid in a candy store going through them choosing which ones will come home with me!! Happy Valentines Day to You!!.... :)

Hi Kim,love Rob`s hearts you showed, and I think my family and me are in deep need for them. So I just wrote to him to see if he had any suggestions for the 9 of us :-) and if he sends abroad. Sure hope he does. Thanks for the article and happy valentines day,Claudia

Ron truly is the king of hearts in every sense of the word. His work is the closest to perfection that I have ever seen and as beautiful as every one of the hearts he makes are, none of them can hold a candle the one inside of him. I think he is a very special man. ~Great post, Kim. Leslie